Charlotte Botterill — Pandemic Portraits

‘Pandemic Portraits’ is a multi-media project by St Albans based photographer Nic Madge. The purpose of the project is to document the effect that Covid-19 is having on communities and businesses in St Albans. Each month a different musician has contributed music to the project, and I was invited to provide the music for the April edition.

Nic’s year long project began in October 2020, “with images and comments divided into monthly chapters so that we can see how experiences and attitudes develop over time.” - Nic Madge.

When Nic approached me to provide music for April’s edition of ‘Pandemic Portraits’, I offered him a selection of pieces from my album ‘Isolation’, a collection of piano miniatures composed during the first lockdown. We both felt that these pieces would work nicely for his project, as they were composed to reflect the moods and experiences of myself and others during the pandemic; feelings of uncertainty, anxiety, loss, and monotony, punctuated with fleeting moments of hope.

Working with Nic was an enjoyable and collaborative process in which we embraced each other’s skill sets. He regularly provided me with the latest diptychs which enabled me to match musical moods with the sentiment of the subjects’ words. Nic was very welcoming of my suggested pieces and running order, and was happy to accept a last minute track substitution!

Both Nic and I are really pleased with the outcome of April’s ‘Pandemic Portraits’. Nic observed that using a collection of short musical pieces gave a different dimension to the this chapter, as each piece provides a slightly different picture of life in the pandemic, much like the different experiences expressed by his subjects. I completely agree with him.

“The pandemic has had awful and tragic consequences, but it has also inspired great artistic work. Charlotte’s wonderful album ‘Isolation’ exemplifies this. Her stark, yet beautiful, music captures perfectly the varying moods of lockdown. Working with her also shows the benefits of collaboration between artists with different skills. Charlotte’s music, the photographic portraits and the often poignant words of the people photographed are proof of Aristotle’s dictum ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.’” - Nic Madge

Reflecting on the project, I find it interesting that both Nic and I have chosen to express and document the pandemic through our art. The events of 2020 have had a profound effect on us, and by exploring this through art we are able to cope with, and make sense of, these unusual times.

The multi-media presentation will be exhibited in the St Albans Museum and Gallery from the 17th May until the 30th September 2021. The portraits and captions will be entered into the St Albans Museum archives, as well as digitally preserved in the British Library digital archives.

To read more about ‘Pandemic Portraits’, visit Nic’s website.

The individual monthly chapters can be viewed on youtube. Watch the April edition below.